Entertainment Weekly recently spoke with action director Rob Cohen ("Fast & The Furious", "XXX", "Stealth") who revealed new details about his planned live-action adventure "The 8th Voyage of Sinbad" project for Sony Pictures and Coming Soon has jotted them down.
Keanu Reeves will star as Sinbad the sailor, the legendary character from "The Arabian Nights." In the film, set in eighth-century China, Sinbad and his shipmates embark on a quest to find the Lamp of Aladdin. Along the way, they meet a beautiful empress and battle fantastical creatures as well as a rebellious Chinese general who threatens the kingdom with his supernatural powers.
Cohen looked up famed effects genius Ray Harryhausen ans asked "I met with him and said, 'I really would be honored if you would be with me on this, since none of us would be here without you.' What Ray understood in movies like 1958's 'The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad' was how to do action-fantasy-adventure at a time there was no CG. So he's coming out of retirement to be our creative consultant, our godfather...Ray thinks Keanu [could be] the greatest Sinbad ever."
Cohen thinks Ziyi Zhang ("Hero", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero") is the one for the job of the empress, and he's already talked with the likes of Jet Li, Djimon Hounsou and Hayden Christensen for roles as members of the crew. The film is aiming for a January start of shooting date and is aiming for a PG rating with the MPAA.
